Ford Focus ST
REPORT 6
£29,495 OTR/£32,440 as tested/£377pcm
WHY IT’S HERE
Is the Fiesta ST’s bigger brother just as magical as a daily?
DRIVER
Ollie Kew
WHEN FORD ANNOUNCED THIS GENERATION OF FOCUS ST, I wondered if it would become a modern-day tuning hero. Souping up your engine has changed unrecognisably in the past couple of decades, because it’s no longer a tiresome, oily business.
Modern, electronically managed engines simply ask a software flash and away you go. Still, there’s no replacement for displacement, and the ST’s 2.3-litre engine is a monster for the class. A full half a litre bigger than a RenaultSport Megane RS’s engine. We know that Ford can easily pull 350bhp out of this EcoBoost unit, because it did so in the last Focus RS, and the four-pot Mustang isn’t far behind.
Developing 276bhp and 310lb ft, there’s obviously loads of headroom in this motor. We’ll not delve into the semantics of emissions filters strangling that now. That’s why we have tuning companies. This chassis can easily handle more poke – the electronic diff will see to that. Unlike the old Focus ST, then, which really could’ve used a restrictor to knock things back to a nice, neat 150 horsepower, such was its appetite for torque-steer, tyres and fuel. Mate of mine had one, hated fighting it down the road so much, he got into cycling. You should see his legs.
The last few Ford ST products have benefitted from the attentions of Mountune. In the old Fiesta ST and Focus ST, you could land a boost of 20–30bhp with a half-hour upgrade of air filter and ECU, for about £500.
Good news: Mountune’s just announced the m330 pack for the current Focus ST. For £569, the engine is elevated to 325bhp and 380lb ft. Half a second’s been lopped off the 0–62mph time. Madness for a front-wheel-drive car. It’s now a 5.2secs car, offering full Civic Type R performance but, best of all, zero Civic Type R image.